


With Godless America I'll Stand and I'll Fall

by voodoochild



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Dystopia, Multi, Polyamory, The 28th Amendment Universe, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-07
Updated: 2011-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-14 13:17:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voodoochild/pseuds/voodoochild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How the regime begins, and how it changes the professional and personal lives of David Rossi, Emily Prentiss, and Aaron Hotchner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Godless America I'll Stand and I'll Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bessemerprocess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/gifts).



> Written for **bessemerprocess** for fandom_stocking, and taking place in the 28th Amendment universe. Credit goes to **melliyna** as well, for her original CM offshoot of the Amendmentverse. Title from the Indelicates' "America".

Dave would like to say they saw it coming.

He remembers tense days, everyone walking the razor's edge of trying to appear as "normal" as possible. Remembers Garcia dying her hair brown and hacking the GPS on everyone's cell phones, remembers Morgan hitting the gym more often and displaying the cross Tamara Barnes had given him, remembers Reid quietly calling Las Vegas and making arrangements for his mother's care. He remembers JJ guarding their privacy even more ruthlessly.

The nights, though, were worse. They were filled with Emily's obsessive planning - how to get in touch with her mother, how to access the secret account she set up for them, how to ditch their cars and find alternate routes to the safe house in Arlington. Emily had to think of every contingency, every possibility. Aaron was quietly planning as well, leaving money and an untraceable SUV and instructions for Haley and Jack to make it to Sean in New York.

Dave could not even begin to think of what to do. He's still astonishingly angry that the amendment is being debated at all, furious that even after the Prometheus and the food shortages and the riots, there are still people finger-pointing and Bible-thumping. He is a Catholic, no matter how lapsed, and knows his Bible. There is nothing in there about punishing nonbelievers and supporting what amounts to ethnic cleansing.

But the nights are the only time they have together, any longer.

Aaron must be the devoted ex-husband and father, the unyielding boss. Emily must be the dutiful daughter, the supportive team member. Dave must be the indulgent uncle and friend, the solid second-in-command. Those are the roles they must play. Unconventional relationships are not tolerated; the fact that there are three of them is just as bad as two men in a relationship. So they play the roles; Dave and Emily a loving, heterosexual couple, Aaron their divorced best friend they're supposedly trying to set up with a woman they know. No one outside of the team would guess the truth.

Friday nights are their time, shuttered into Dave's house. They each arrive separately - Dave goes straight from the BAU, Emily stops by her apartment for an hour to organize and pretend she still lives in it, Aaron comes by much later under cover of darkness - and precautions are taken. Cars parked around corners, arrangements made to enter via the backyard.

Emily hates the sneaking around, but they all know it's necessary. Ever since the obscenity trials, the outlawing of polygamy in any form and homosexuality becoming criminalized, they have to be beyond-careful.

They draw the blinds and curtains - heavy black brocade Dave hasn't seen since his Nonna's house in Long Island - and curl up in Dave's bed. When the Amendment was first passed, they mostly had a lot of sex in a great many positions and combinations in a sort of protest, but now, it's different. Now, all they want is to shore up the time they have left, make memories for what's looking to be a hard time ahead.

Aaron insists on watching Emily shave her legs and take her makeup off, loves the little things she does like hum jazz under her breath and brush her teeth every evening. Emily makes Dave explain every bit of cooking knowledge he has; watches how he crushes the tomatoes for the sauce with a fork and demonstrates how to use a roux to thicken a sauce. Dave pries every bit of Jack's childhood out of Aaron - every story, every funny joke, every bump and bruise and embarrassing anecdote - and writes it all down in a plain marble notebook.

They still have sex, but it's much more careful and a lot less loud. Neighbors will talk, even on Dave's friendly street.

Emily prods Aaron into talking dirty, telling them everything that turns him on in a low whisper. Aaron gags Dave with one of his own ties and teases him for hours. Dave gets Emily into her old goth look - fishnets and eyeliner and heels and a corset - and fucks her right up against the door to his bedroom, Aaron looking on from the bed.

They do all the things they promised to do someday, because someday has come and won't be around for much longer. This is stolen time, Dave knows. The last chance they'll have to make dinner together, to venture out to Danielle's for brunch on Saturday mornings, to watch terrible sci-fi movies because Emily loves them and Dave loves to mock them and Aaron loves watching his lovers more than the movie. Every Friday night is one step closer to the inevitable.

They come for Aaron one Monday morning, at work. Dave and Morgan have to be held back by the Home Guard, Emily is too shocked to do anything but cry into Garcia's shoulder, JJ has been under house arrest for the past two weeks, and Reid is too busy shaking and arguing with Strauss. It's only the beginning. It kicks off a frantic phone call to Haley and Jessica to take Jack to Arlington, because no one's getting into New York.

The next week, they try to take Garcia into custody and no one can hold Morgan back. He shoots one of the Guard and gets Garcia on the last plane out of Dulles. Emily turns frantic eyes to Dave, and yes, their plans are going to have to be amended. Emily takes Morgan to Arlington the next day, leaving Dave and Reid to cover.

Erin gives him hell, but also slips him a message from Aaron.

 _"I want my family safe, David. That includes you. They're talking in here. You're next. GET OUT."_

He will, but he has to make sure they're all safe. He tells Reid to leave his desk in the middle of the day, pretend like he's sick, and hands him a file with directions to the Arlington house. He begs Erin to keep an eye on JJ, and get word to him if it looks like JJ will be in further danger. It's a near-miss with the Guard, who have taken to patrolling Quantico, but he makes it to Arlington, to a kiss from Emily, exasperated amusement from Reid and Morgan, and their new lives as the DC Resistance.

It won't be for another year, not until Aaron's execution, that Dave realizes he never could have seen this coming. He doesn't stand on the platform - Haley and Jack have been given special dispensation - but he and Emily are in the crowd. They're numbers one and two on the FBI's Most Wanted List, and there's a price on Emily's head, but see if you could talk either of them out of coming.

Emily had to _see_. Dave had to _understand_.

In the end, all that mattered was that they saw Aaron one last time.


End file.
